Drugs, Kids And Grownups

For years, doctors assumed that children, biochemically speaking, are little adults. So anytime they had to give a child a grownup medication, such as Prozac, they just lowered the dose on the basis of his or her weight. But in 1998 the FDA ruled that companies had to conduct pediatric tests of adult drugs. That rule followed a 1997 law offering drugmakers a six-month extension on their patents if they did so voluntarily.

Good thing. Turns out kids aren't little adults, after all. New studies show that young children need to take the epilepsy drug Neurontin in higher doses than adults...